Industry & People
Holding groups merge data units into single offer
Two global agency holding groups have folded their separate data and technology units into single client-facing businesses, citing demand for simpler contracts.
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Brand & Strategy
Brand trackers show price, not purpose, drives switching
Across four large brand-tracking panels, price and availability explain most brand switching in 2026, while purpose messaging ranks near the bottom.
Analytics & Measurement
Marketing mix models get weekly refresh cycles
Advertisers using open-source mix modelling tools now refresh models weekly instead of quarterly, shortening the gap between spending and insight.
E-commerce & Retail Media
Retail media networks open off-site inventory to rivals
Large retail media networks are starting to let competing brands buy their shopper audiences on external sites, a step away from the walled-garden model.
MarTech & Data
Clean rooms move from pilots to always-on measurement
More than half of large advertisers now run data clean rooms continuously rather than for one-off studies, a benchmark report from a measurement consultancy shows.
Social & Creators
Creator marketplaces add standard rate cards for B2B
Two major creator marketplaces now publish benchmark rate cards for business-to-business campaigns, aiming to shorten negotiations between brands and specialist creators.
Search & SEO
Search referrals to publishers fall 18% after AI answers
Publishers tracking organic traffic report an 18% year-on-year drop in search referrals since AI-generated answer panels expanded to more queries in their markets.
AI in Marketing
AI agents start negotiating programmatic deals end to end
Several demand-side platforms have opened beta programmes in which software agents set up, price and optimise private marketplace deals without a human trader in the loop.
Media Buying
Upfront CTV deals slide as buyers favour quarterly terms
Advertisers are committing less of their connected-TV budget in annual upfronts and more in quarterly deals, according to buyer disclosures published this week.
AdTech & Programmatic
Header bidding wrappers consolidate as SSPs cut partners
Three of the five largest supply-side platforms have trimmed their demand partner lists this quarter, and publishers are responding by running fewer, heavier wrappers.
AI in Marketing
Generative search ads reach general availability
Search platforms have moved ad placements inside AI-generated answers out of beta for advertisers in most English-speaking markets.
AdTech & Programmatic
Ad verification firms add checks for AI-made sites
Verification vendors now flag websites built largely from machine-generated content, after buyers found budgets flowing to low-quality pages.
Search & SEO
Structured summaries lift click-through in publisher tests
Publishers that added short structured summaries to article pages saw click-through from search results rise by up to 9% in controlled tests.
E-commerce & Retail Media
Grocery retailers pool ad inventory in shared marketplace
Regional grocery chains have launched a joint marketplace so advertisers can buy their combined in-store and online inventory in one place.